Archive for September, 2008

Hurricane Kyle is on the warpath! Flee from my torrential moisture. Witness my massive thunderheads. I have spared Maine, but Canada may not be so lucky.

My fellow designer, Jess Tice, decided to fill me in to the weather situation this weekend. Subtle isn’t she? When she is not using Photoshop for evil, she can be found making anything from the awesome papers used in the cut paper collage at the studio, to delicious “breakfast” cookies, to cool prints.

Go to her Etsy store below and buy something so Jess will be too busy making art to mess with my beautiful face:

This Thursday, October 2nd I will be visiting the University of Florida to attend a wonderful pop-up book exhibit that they have on display until Halloween. “Pop-up, Spin, Pull, Fold: Toy Books from the Baldwin Library” shares fifty excellent examples of pop-up and movable books from the 1780’s to the present. They will be showcasing some real treasures including some early harlequinades, Dean & Son’s Little Red Riding Hood, one of my favorite Meggendorfer titles, and a trio of Kubasta works.

I am very excited to be speaking at the event and plan to provide a historical overview of pop-ups as I look at the production of my last book Castle: Medieval Days and Knights. Following the talk I will be hosting a workshop to create a pop-up inspired by my book, and in the evening I plan on doing a demonstration for “Museum Nights” at the Harn Museum. I will also be visiting a teacher’s education class at 8 am. (Man, when was the last time I had to go to an 8 am class!) It’s going to be a full day and I’ll be sure to bring back some photos and stories from my one day stay in sunny Florida.

The Movable Book Society conference in D.C. has now passed and we have to wait two more years before the next gathering. Luckily, it will take about that long to process all the amazing presentations and book collections that I was able to witness over the three days. The conference was a great success and I must share some of the special moments here.
The first presentation was on the wonderful artist and paper engineer, Julian Wehr, brought to life for us by his son Paul Wehr. After sharing the life’s journey of Julian Wehr, he presented many rare drawings and prototypes from the Wehr Archives in the University of Virginia. My favorite was a color mock-up of a sequel title of Wehr’s first book. This unpublished animated book shown above exhibited stunning movement from his trademark rocker tab and delightful graphic endpapers. The book was ready for publication, but the timing was not right, so it was lost in the shuffle. What a tragedy. Maybe some day “The Further Adventures of Finnie the Fiddler” will see the light of day. Until then, it’s a good thing it was all in protective plastic sheets because there would have been drool all over this one-of-a-kind movable book!

To learn more about Paul Wehr and his quest to keep his father’s work alive, visit: http://www.wehranimations.com/

Later this week the studio is will make a pilgrimage to Washington D.C. to take part in the Moveable Book Society conference. This three-day event comes around every two years and is held in a different location each time. It’s a great opportunity for collectors, paper engineers, artists, and book lovers to share their stories and even a few of the treasures from their collection. There is always an exhibit associated with the event and we will be visiting the National Museum for Women in the Arts as well as getting our hands pulpy in a papermaking workshop at Pyramid Atlantic. Stay tuned for full coverage of the conference when we get back!

Today is the first day of class for many kids across the country. It’s also the first day of school for me. Yep, Professor Olmon has to report to duty at Pratt Institute and introduce another class of undergrads to the action packed world of paper engineering. I am always extra excited for the Fall term and even woke up before the alarm in my “first day of school jitters”. I’ll keep you posted on how the semester goes!

Sticking with the back to class theme I wanted to introduce the fold school (http://www.foldschool.com/), which is a great place to create your own cardboard furniture. Just download the PDF, grab some old boxes, and before you know it there is a petite stool, chair or rocker. Keep in mind, these finished projects were intended for little ones, but take the skills and patience of the old and wise.

[Note: This post was created last week on Tuesday, September 2nd. Technical difficulties prevented it from entering the blogosphere until now.]

Sorry for the prolonged absence. Just as I was getting this website and blog up and running I was hit by an electronical mutiny. My trusty computer suffered a small meltdown and the biggest casualty were the folders with all my files for the website (which of course, was not backed up properly…oh, how many times will I learn this hard lesson?). My modem joined in on the fun and “broke, just broke” as the technician bluntly stated when I was able to get him in for a look after a week without my beloved internet. As a cruel joke, my headphones decided to stop working at this time creating a trifecta of frustration. But I have it all sorted out now (fingers crossed), so we will travel back in time in the next post to what you would have seen last Tuesday.